Quota protesters demand withdrawal of cases in 2 days

Dhaka: Bangladesh General Students’ Rights Protection Council on Monday demanded withdrawal of all cases filed against the protesters during quota reform movement within two days.

Leaders of the council also threatened to wage movement again if their demand would not met within the stipulated time.

Nurul Haque, co-convener of the council, read out the written statement at a press briefing in front of the central library in DU campus around 11:00am.

Earlier on April 11, four cases were filed against unnamed accused following the clash and vandalism in DU camps and its VC’s house during the demonstration for the reformation of quota system in government jobs.

At the press conference, the agitating students also protested a report published by the ‘Daily Ittefaq’ which termed the protesters as ‘Shibir’.

They also demanded for withdrawal of the news saying, ‘If the newspaper does not withdraw the report within 5:00pm today (Monday), all educational institutions and universities will boycott the newspaper from tomorrow (Tuesday).’

The leaders also demanded the arrest of the miscreants involved in the attack on the residence of the VC.

They also urged the authorities not to harass any student in the university hall or the campus.

Earlier on Thursday, the council announced to stay all their protest programmes in response to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s decision to cancel all quotas for government jobs.

On February 17, students and jobseekers started the movement to press for their five-point demand that include introduction of unified age limit in government jobs, review of quota system in government recruitment process, including

Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examination, stopping taking benefit by job seekers under the same quota, filling vacant posts from merit list if the candidates from quota are not found and fixation of 10 percent quota instead of existing 56 per cent.